////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
//  Copyright (c) 2009 Gabriel Montagné Láscaris-Comneno and Alberto
//  Brealey-Guzmán.
//
//  Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
//  copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
//  to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
//  the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
//  and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
//  Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
//
//  The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
//  all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
//
//  THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
//  IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
//  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
//  THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
//  LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
//  FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
//  DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

package com.rojored.core
{

/**
 *  The <code>IObjectPool</code> interface defines the interface that object
 *  pools such as <code>PooledClassFactory</code> must implement.
 *
 *  @see com.rojored.core.PooledClassFactory
 */
public interface IObjectPool
{

    //--------------------------------------------------------------------------
    //
    //  Methods
    //
    //--------------------------------------------------------------------------

    /**
     *  Returs an instance of some class (determined by the
     *  <code>IObjectPool</code> implementation) from the pool.
     */
    function acquire():*;

    /**
     *  Returns an instance to the pool.
     */
    function release(instance:*):void;

}
}
